Fuel cells are well known and are commonly used to produce electrical current from hydrogen containing reducing fluid fuel and oxygen containing oxidant reactant streams to power electrical apparatus such as transportation vehicles. In fuel cells of the prior art, it is well known that fuel is produced by a reformer and the resulting fuel is referred to as a reformate fuel that flows from the reformer through a fuel reactant stream inlet line into an anode flow field of the fuel cell. As is well known an oxygen rich reactant simultaneously flows through a cathode flow field of the fuel cell to produce electricity. Unfortunately, such reformate fuels frequently contain contaminants especially ammonia. The presence of ammonia in the reformate fuel stream is detrimental to the performance of the fuel cell. It is understood that ammonia is a common byproduct of the reforming process and although the reforming process is designed to minimize formation of ammonia, it is common that low levels of ammonia are present in the reformate fuel. The ammonia formation results from nitrogen that is present in natural gas that is fed into the reformer to be reformed into the fuel. Typically nitrogen content is between 2-3 percent but may reach as high as 15 percent in some parts of the world. Known fuel cells that include phosphoric acid as an electrolyte cannot achieve a desired 10 year life with greater than 1-2 percent nitrogen within the natural gas. Additionally, in the case of auto thermal or partial oxidation reformers, nitrogen can also be introduced when air is used as the oxygen source for the reforming process.
Many efforts have been undertaken to remove ammonia and other contaminants from fuel reactant streams of fuel cells. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,356 that issued on Jan. 31, 1989, to Grasso disclosed an elaborate system for removal of ammonia from fuel cell power plant water. The system of Grasso includes passing cooling water that had been used to cool the reformate fuel through a first steam stripper and a second steam stripper to remove the ammonia contaminant. Although effective, the system of Grasso requires complex and costly strippers and processing of a large volume of fuel cell coolant water.
More recently U.S. Pat. No. 6,376,114, that issued on Apr. 23, 2002 to Bonville, Jr. et al., disclosed another elaborate system for removing ammonia and other contaminants from reformate fuel. The system of Bonville, Jr. et al., includes alternatively a disposable ammonia scrubber, an ammonia scrubbing cool water bed and an ammonia stripping warm water bed, a pair of first and second regenerable scrubbers, or a single regenerable scrubber. Again, while effective the Bonville, Jr. et al system includes elaborate and costly components that require a high level of maintenance to operate the system. Other ammonia and related contaminant removal systems for fuel cells are known in the art. However, none of these provide for efficiently removing ammonia with minimal costs and minimal maintenance requirements. Most known ammonia contaminant removal systems require large components for processing a high volume of fluids, or require high frequency removal and replacement of contaminated filters and/or ion beds, etc.
Consequently, there is a need for a contaminant removal system for a fuel reactant stream that may be operated efficiently for a long period of time without high frequency maintenance.